Motivation, and objectives.
This guide is the result of a collaborative project between the Latin American Network of Assisted Reproduction (REDLARA) and University Diego Portales, Chile (UDP).
This virtual platform aims at providing both professionals and persons suffering from infertility or other forms of reproductive impairments, who are about to undertake any of the assisted reproduction techniques (ART) with scientific information, which can help them in the therapeutic decision-making process.
The information contained on this platform is the result of a thorough “Big Data” analysis, taken from the Latin American Registry of Assisted Reproduction, which has been collecting, analyzing and reporting the results of the assisted reproduction techniques performed in Latin America during the last 30 years. This educational tool is based on the analysis of approximately 1,300,000 ART cycles and 300,000 livebirths in Latin America.
The Latin American Registry (RLA), the first regional registry in the world, started in 1990, with 19 centers in 9 countries. The green curve shows the number of participating centers, and the purple bars, the number of medically assisted reproduction treatments (ART), reported to RLA by 16 countries from the region. The decrease in the number of centers and procedures in 2020 relates to the COVID-19 pandemic period which, as it can be observed, experienced a quick recovery.
Figure 1: Latin American Registry of Assisted Reproduction RLA 1990-2021
Figure 2 describes the total number of livebirths from ART per country between 1990 and 2021. Values in parenthesis represent the percentage of births from ART with respect to all births from ART in Latin America.
The database used to educate in this portal, corresponds to approximately 1.300.000 initiated ART cycles and the birth of 296,439 babies in Latin America.
Figure 2. Number of livebirth by ART Latin America 1990 and 2021.
As it can be seen in Figure 3, of all livebirths resulting from ART in Latin America between 1990 and 2021, 38.9% correspond to ICSI treatments, 10.5% to IVF, etc. The high proportion of newborns by egg donation (OD) (19.6%) is larger than the world data (approximately 11%). This is related to a growing tendency of delaying motherhood in Latin America. This is also due to the fact that in most countries, the State does not contribute, to financing these treatments, which also delays access.
Figure 3. Existing information after 32 years of ART Latin America, 1990-1991.
The Latin American Registry of Assisted Reproduction (RLA) thanks the 204 institutions accredited by REDLARA which, every year, report their data to RLA.
This voluntary and rigorous contribution makes it possible to generate a powerful database, which helps doctors and patients take decisions based on the best existing regional evidence.
This educational portal is the result of a collaborative activity between the Latin American Network of Assisted Reproduction (REDLARA), and University Diego Portales from Chile, which allow the link between the reproductive science and technology advances with the needs of people suffering from infertility and other forms of reproductive impairments.
We thank Dr. Ariel Ahumanda and Dr. Gustavo Martínez from Argentina for: images and videos of spontaneous in vitro fertilization, ICSI and PGT,
Dr. Roger Molinas from Paraguay for: videos of follicular aspiration and embryo transfer,
Dr. Javier Crosby from Chile for: images of different stages of in vitro embryo development,
Dr. Yasuyuki Mio from Japan for his video of in vitro embryo development.
We especially thank the industry for providing the financial support, which is so necessary to keep the Latin American registry as a pillar of this international cooperation, which today includes 16 countries and more than 200 collaborative institutions, from Mexico in the north to Chile in the far south.
